Jehovah’s Witnesses – lovely people.
I had two come to my door earlier – polite and friendly as can be.
They gave me this:
But there’s a reason they’re not overly successful on people’s doorsteps (I don’t know about you, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s been converted at their front door, or at all): they’re always on ‘transmit’, rather than thinking what people want to hear.
The thinking seems to be ‘this is what we want to say’, instead of ‘having listened to people, this is what they want to hear’.
As I put to those lovely people at my door, ‘How do you view the future?’ is far too deep a question for me to get into on my doorstep – especially with two strangers.
I think they found this tricky, as they hadn’t come with anything else to discuss – just the question on the leaflet: no plan B.
And therein lies the problem: if you don’t think what your audience wants to hear, you’re stumped when the idea/question you put forward isn’t that thing.
The other issue is the delivery method: doorstepping people.
Does that work? Is it the best way to reach your audience?
If not, then what you’ve done is akin to picking DM, press, or Instagram as your platform with no idea what you’ll put on it – no brief (a reason as to why those are the best platforms) and no creative.
Maybe catching people outside stations is better, or posting notices on community centre notice boards.
In the end, it doesn’t matter that Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t convert people on their doorsteps – they still get brownie points for ‘spreading the word’.
A lesson though: think what your audience wants to hear (and how), not just what you want to say to them.